


Dean Winchester is Saved

by Felurian1



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Almost-MCD, Canon Divergent, Canon Rewrite, Domestic Castiel/Dean Winchester, Domestic Fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode Fix-It: s15e20 Carry On, Fix-It, Hurt Dean Winchester, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Protective Sam Winchester, Sam Winchester Ships Castiel/Dean Winchester, Team Free Will (Supernatural)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-23
Updated: 2020-11-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:42:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27689809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felurian1/pseuds/Felurian1
Summary: ~Dean Winchester is dying. He’s dying, you hear me? So you bring him back. You sons of bitches, you bring him back. Please, Jack. Not like this~Not like this. This is the story of how Dean Winchester was saved. And all the good that happened after.
Relationships: Castiel & Sam Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester, Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester, Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
Comments: 11
Kudos: 137





	Dean Winchester is Saved

**Author's Note:**

> [NOTE: This fic replicates canon dialogue until part way through Dean’s death scene]

Sam knew the minute Dean said his name. Not really knew, of course, but he’d watched Dean die too many times and it always started like this. With softness.

“Sam? I uhh. I don’t think I’m going anywhere.”

“What…. What are you talking about?”, Sam said, looking at where Dean was stood, just leaning against a beam like there was nothing wrong.

“There’s something in my…. Something in my back,” Dean said, breathing so carefully, so slowly around little sharp inhales. “It feels like it’s right through me. Oh god.”

Sam felt the world sway under his feet. He moved over to Dean like he was dreaming, because this couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not after everything. 

He went to pull Dean to the floor, check him over, but Dean pushed him away, shushing him almost. And where his hand came away from Dean’s coat, there was blood. So much blood. 

“I’ll call for help, I’ll get the first aid kit”, Sam said, really panicking now, grasping for anything that would make this better. He turned to run, to get their bandages and kit, but Dean called his name again and he knew it was too late.

“Sam! Sam, Sam stay. Stay with me, please?”

Sam couldn’t deny Dean that. Not ever. He braced one hand on Dean’s shoulder, keeping him steady, ignoring the red hot prick of tears filling his eyes. The sheer unfairness of it rose up in his throat and he almost screamed. Like this? In a barn, like this? 

Sam knew he was shaking, stammering out pleas for Dean to stop, to listen to him, to let him fix this. Dean was trying to tell him something about the kids, to keep them safe, but there was a buzzing in Sam’s ears that wouldn’t go away. Not like this.

“You knew it was always gonna end like this for me,” Dean said, tears in his eyes too now, “I mean, look at us. Saving people, hunting things. It’s what we do.”

Sam tried to shake his head again but Dean stopped him. 

“Hey, hey, stop, okay? It’s okay. It’s good. Look, we had one hell of a ride man--”

Dean stopped to breathe, and Sam could see how much it was costing him. 

“I will find a way, okay? I-I will find another way,” Sam promised, but in his heart he knew it was a lie. There weren’t any ways, not any more. Not since Jack. But he had to make Dean believe that this could be okay. 

As Dean took another shaky breath, Sam focussed on his hand on Dean, on Dean’s blood-soaked shirt, on his eyes that looked just a little dimmer already, on the sound of his pain, and he prayed. To Jack, to Heaven, to anyone who might be listening. 

_Dean Winchester is dying. He’s dying, you hear me? So you bring him back. You sons of bitches, you bring him back. Please, Jack. Not like this_

Dean shook him lightly, cutting off his prayer.

“Hey. No bringing me back okay? You know…. You know that always ends bad.”

Sam almost laughed through his tears because they’d only just talked about this, after Jack left. Before he went, he’d told them that the time of deals was over. Jack was in everything, but that meant he couldn’t be with them personally any more. They were on their own. And at the time that had seemed good, because when had deals ever brought them anything but pain, but now? Now Sam would jump into the Cage again if it would get Dean out of this barn and home in one piece.

“Dean--”, Sam started, but a shake of Dean’s head cut him off.

“I’m fading pretty…. I’m fading pretty quick, so…. There’s a few things I want you to hear,” Dean said, and Sam knew he’d never wanted to hear anything less in his life. He braced himself for whatever Dean wanted to say.

But what he heard instead, was wings. Sam’s heart stopped.

Standing behind Dean, wings spreading like ink across the dust of the barn, was Castiel. He met Sam’s eyes for a moment and smiled.

“Hello, Dean”

Dean drew in his breath sharply, and then cried out as something shifted inside him. He grabbed Sam’s arm, looking at him, questioning. Hoping. Sam just nodded. Yes. Yes.

“....Cas?”, Dean whispered, straining to look behind him without pulling away from the beam.

“I heard your prayer,” Cas said, coming to stand beside Sam. Dean was looking at him with sheer disbelief on his face.

“Cas… How?”, Sam stammered, “I thought… I thought you were gone.”

“I was,” Cas replied, “But Jack he-- he remade Heaven. All of it, actually. And he brought me back.”

“To earth?”, Sam managed, his brain still trying to catch up with what Cas was saying.

Cas smiled ruefully.

“No. To Heaven. The walls of Heaven are closed to angels now, as it was before the Garden.”

Dean made a wheezing noise and all Sam’s questions were replaced with one.

“Can you heal him, Cas?”

Sam thought he caught a moment of hesitation in Cas’s face, as though he was thinking of something else, but then he nodded. Sam felt the stone in his stomach lift, hope flooding through his heart like a song.

“Sam. You need to get out of the way”, Cas said, and Sam moved back to let Cas into Dean’s space.

Cas placed his hands on Dean’s shoulders and light began to glow from his palms, then his face, his whole body golden and bright like the sun. And then it was too bright, and Sam closed his eyes against the brilliant flash of angelic power.

When he opened them again, Dean was lying on the floor, Castiel kneeling over him. The light was gone, and Cas looked tireder. Older, almost.

“Last time I did that you were considerably lighter, Dean”, Cas muttered.

Sam choked back a hysterical laugh, feeling the tears start to come for real now. At his feet, Dean stirred, then coughed, then slowly, slowly, opened his eyes.

“Cas? Am I-- Am I dead?”

Sam felt rather than saw Castiel roll his eyes.

“No Dean, you are not dead. Heaven does not look like a barn in Ohio.”

“Then….?”

“Cas saved you,” Sam said, taking pity on Dean for once. “He saved you, and now he’s gonna zap our sorry asses back home so I can get you checked over properly.” Cas looked uncomfortable, and Sam hastened to add, “No offence. I’m sure you healed him up just fine.”

“I feel like I got hit by a truck,” Dean grumbled, gingerly propping himself up against the wall.

Castiel sighed, and Sam threw Dean look that clearly said hey, try being a little more grateful to the dude who saved your life huh?

“I can’t ‘zap your sorry asses home’,” Cas said, air quotes at full force, “Or do anything else ‘useful’ right now.”

“What, you lost your mojo?”, Dean said, helpfully.

Cas rounded on him furiously, his voice rising to a shout.

“Yes Dean, I have ‘lost my mojo’. When Jack repaired Heaven, he made new rules. Angels can’t come to earth any more. But I heard Sam’s prayer, and I still had a choice, so I came anyway! Saving you was the last of my grace. So I’m sorry if it wasn’t up to the standard you’re used to!”

“Well what the hell’d you do that for!”, Dean yelled back.

“Because I love you, Dean!”

Sam couldn’t help it, he gasped. Cas instantly went silent, Dean glaring at him like he’d just admitted to murdering a kitten, not being in love with him.

It took Sam a moment to realise Dean looked embarrassed, not shocked.

“YOU KNEW??!”

“He mighta said something before he left,” Dean mumbled into his shirt.

“Oh, before he left. BEFORE HE DIED FOR YOU, YOU MEAN?”, Sam said, an insane grin spreading across his face.

“Sam, please, if Dean does not wish to discuss this…”, Cas said quietly, clearly trying to preserve Dean’s dignity. Unfortunately he was talking to a younger brother so that option wasn’t on the table.

“Uh huh? How’s about it Dean? Wanna tell Cas how you really feel, or shall I?”, Sam said, watching with glee as Dean’s face went red. “Yeah I heard you talking to yourself in the Impala, been fooling you with the whole ‘being asleep’ trick since I was 12!”

“Shut up Sammy,” Dean gritted out, eyes fixed firmly on the floor.

“Last chance Dean….”

“Okay fine! Just… just give us some space okay? You oversized baboon!”

Sam cackled, but backed off to the other side of the barn. He watched as Castiel crouched down next to Dean, the trenchcoat blocking their faces as they spoke. It went on for a few minutes, first Cas, then Dean, then Cas again, something that sounded like a question. Sam surreptitiously crossed his fingers, please let Dean say it, please.

One word answer.

And then Cas surged forward, knocking Dean back against the wall as he kissed him. Sam whooped appreciatively, earning a finger from Dean and absolutely nothing from Cas who was kissing Dean like he was oxygen.

Sam turned away, but he couldn’t stop the smile from sticking on his face. Finally, after all these years, the idiots had figured it out.

Eventually the kissing stopped, which Sam was made aware of by Dean coughing loudly until he turned back around.

Dean was on his feet, arm looped over Cas’s shoulder, clearly still hurting but with a sheepish shy grin on his face. Sam hadn’t seen that expression on him since high school, but he resisted poking at it. For now.

“Alright you two. Let’s get you into the car Dean,” Sam said, because someone had to be the grown up around here. He shook his head. “And no making out in the backseat oka---OWW!”

Dean raised an eyebrow and held up another shuriken, ready to throw.

“Don’t make me do that again!”

“Dean. Sam. Let’s go home?”, said Cas gently, and Sam figured he’d let him have it. After all, they had all the time in the world.

EPILOGUE - 1 YEAR LATER

Sam loved evenings like this. Feet up in the map room, browsing reddit with half an eye, a reference book balanced on his lap. Across from him, Eileen tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and Sam reached out and took her hand, signing “I love you” with his left as he kissed her palm. Eileen laughed and snatched her hand away, nodding up the table to where Dean was falling asleep in his armchair.

Sam raised one finger to his lips and winked. He tiptoed over to where Dean was sitting, slippered feet silent against the floor, and dramatically readied himself to knock Dean’s elbow off the side of the chair.

“Don’t even think about it Sammy”, came the low voice as Dean opened his eyes a crack, “Heard you moving before you even knew you were doing it.”

Sam faked a scowl and went to sit back down with Eileen.

“You should go to bed, Dean”, Cas said, walking through from the kitchen. It still shocked Sam to see the former angel doing routine tasks like cleaning, though it probably didn’t help that Cas refused to be seen wearing anything less than a formal shirt.

Dean opened his eyes fuzzily and smiled.

“Yeah. If you say so Cas.”

As Dean staggered to his feet and made for his bedroom, Sam marvelled at how easily his brother had slipped into domesticity. Turned out all he’d been missing was Cas to balance him out. Smiling quietly to himself, he looked up from his laptop just in time to see Cas flash a sign to Eileen before he followed Dean to bed.

“Did he just say SOCK ON THE DOOR?!”

It took a solid thirty seconds before Eileen could stop laughing long enough to nod yes.

**Author's Note:**

> If you liked this, please tell me. My heart is hurting and feedback means everything.


End file.
